Founder of @teleporme — World’s first marketplace for Live Streamers. Monetize your scopes or hire someone on Periscope to virtually take you around the world.

Oct 20, 2015

3 reasons why @Hulu failed on their 1st #Periscope–don’t let your company do the same

Can someone please respond to Emily?

I’ll begin by saying that I love Hulu and I’m actually a paid subscriber of their service. In addition, this post is not meant to bash Hulu but rather learn from some of the mistakes I believe they made during their first Periscope broadcast and how anyone who owns a company or brand can avoid them.

Keep in mind that I’m a marketer but most importantly I’m a Periscope addict and have been using the platform since the day it got released to the app store. Moreover, I scope 5–7 times a week and have done over 200 broadcasts to date.

Big props to companies trying to be on Social

I’m a big advocate for brands having a presence on social. I strongly believe that all companies can benefit from incorporating their marketing efforts into social media. When done right, social media marketing can have a huge ROI, just ask Kim Garst.

Know the platform

Companies and brands should spend plenty of time to know the proper “etiquette” that people expect according to the specific social media platform they’re looking to tap into. In this case, Hulu failed to treat Periscope as a completely new platform. Instead, they appeared to treat it as if it was a YouTube channel–big mistake.

They had fancy graphics, they appeared to be using some sort of DSLR camera (blurry background) and their phone/iPad was actually pointing at a TV screen instead of the hosts directly. Not to mention, the entire scope seemed to have been pre-rehearsed.

“This is just being videoed on TV”

At one point, people who were watching even thought it was a pre-recorded video being displayed on a monitor and broadcasted over Periscope. It was obvious the video quality was not what most people are used to seeing on traditional scopes. And even the audio had a tiny delay that did not match the video. (You can watch the entire replay at the end of this article.)

Just remember that one of the reasons Periscope is great is because it’s raw, natural and unscripted.

2. Interact

In my opinion, one of the best features Periscope has to offer is live interaction with the audience. Failing to interact with people and acknowledge their questions could mean the last time that person ever shows up to watch another one of your scopes.

Sure, sometimes it’s hard to keep up with the high number of comments but companies should at least appear to be trying. In my scopes, I know that at times I will miss some people’s questions and as a result, I’ve developed #AskRayG

In this case, Hulu completely ignored almost every single comment. Poor Emily never got an answer to her question wanting to know if @DrPhil would ever make it to Hulu.

3. Provide value

Providing value on any social media platform is key and Periscope is no different.

Providing value means helping the people who are watching you. If you can manage to do that, people will continue to come back and watch everything you have to offer.

Hulu instead delivered a huge long commercial to try to convince me to watch more Hulu. They kept going on and on, just talking about their favorite shows on Hulu and at times even showed an entire clip/commercial of a show.

They also plan on making this a weekly event.

Sorry, but I will not watch @Hulu on Periscope if it’s going to be one long commercial every time.

Companies and brands should never turn their scopes into purely promotional. Instead, provide 80% of unique value to viewers and you can then “right hook” them with 20% of self-promotion.

One thing any brand can start by doing is a simple Q&A on their first broadcast. If they pay attention to all the questions their fans ask, they could then address the answers on future scopes. If you do this, I guarantee you’ll never run out of future content that you know your audience is dying to hear about.

Like, when the heck is Dr. Phil going to make it on Hulu?

–Poor Emily

Below is the entire 8-minute replay of Hulu’s first broadcast on Periscope: